A SCOTTISH skipper was at the centre of a maritime mystery last night, after his crew claimed he had tried to sink their yacht deliberately.

Rescuers found Spike

Sellers, an expedition leader and mountain guide from Glenfinnan, north of Fort William, with his hands tied behind his back in the cabin of the stricken vessel off the Spanish coast.

His two crew members, Ivan Holroyd and Rachel Rosen, both from Wales, told the emergency services they had tied him up and radioed for help because they were afraid he would scuttle the 36ft Argo.

Mr Holroyd, 34, and Miss Rosen, 32, said they had been trying to calm the captain down for almost two hours on Wednesday morning before they decided to activate the boat's radio rescue beacon.

They were found straddling him when the first helicopter reached the scene. The pair were lifted to safety and flown to the air rescue centre near Finistere, on the north-west coast.

Salvamenton Finistere, the Spanish coastguard, sent out a second helicopter to rescue Mr Sellers. A salvage ship arrived at the scene moments later, but it is understood to have taken rescuers more than an hour to coax the skipper aboard the Salvamar.

''He was in a highly nervous state, shouting and cursing,'' said one emergency worker.

The incident took place 90 miles off the coast of Galicia, the region that occupies the most north-westerly tip of Spain.

A spokeswoman for the Hospital da Costa, in Burela, confirmed that Mr Sellers, 32, had received treatment, but refused to give details of his condition.

Mr Holroyd, a mountaineering instructor from Llanberis, Gwynedd, and Miss Rosen were said to be recovering from their ordeal at a hostel in the nearby fishing port of Celeiro. A member of the hostel staff said: ''They are still shaken, but are safe and sound.''

Both had given a statement to the Spanish police.

Speaking last night, a coastguard spokeswoman described the scene which was faced by the rescue team. She said: ''We don't know the reasons behind what happened. We found a man and a woman who were taken out of the water, put into a helicopter and taken to the hospital at Burela.

''Then they told us there was another person left in the boat and he was in a bad way. When they said they had tied him up and he was still in the boat, we went to rescue him too and took him to the same place.''

She added that the three crew members were visibly shaken by the incident. ''They were extremely shocked when we found them.''

The Welsh couple were thought to have joined Mr Sellers for a fortnight's sailing holiday a week ago.

Mr Sellers's family declined to make any comment last night. An experienced climber and mountaineering expert, he runs a business in the Highlands which offers treks, canoeing expeditions, and sailing trips to Skye and St Kilda.

An employee at the Nevis mountain range, where Mr Sellers is a well-known face during the winter months, said the community was puzzled by the incident.

She said: ''The guys who go climbing with him are just kind of shocked. No-one seems certain as to what has happened, but it does seem quite bizarre.''

A friend of Mr Holroyd's said he would have taken the whole incident in his stride.

Mr McNeill described his friend, whom he first met at Nottingham University in 1989, as a great bloke. He said: ''All I know is that they were three friends who went on a sailing holiday.''

He had not spoken to him since the incident, but added: ''Life's full of adventure. He'll take it in his stride.''